You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise

by Joel Salatin

Have you ever desired, deep within your soul, to make a comfortable full-time living from a farming enterprise? Too often people dare not even vocalize this desire because it seems absurd. It's like thinking the unthinkable.

After all, the farm population is dwindling. It takes too much capital to start. The pay is too low. The working conditions are dusty, smelly and noisy: not the place to raise a family. This is all true, and more, for most farmers.

But for farm entrepreneurs, the opportunities for a farm family business have never been greater. The aging farm population is creating cavernous niches begging to be filled by creative visionaries who will go in dynamic new directions. As the industrial agriculture complex crumbles and our culture clambers for clean food, the countryside beckons anew with profitable farming opportunities.

While this book can be helpful to all farmers, it targets the wannabes, the folks who actually entertain notions of living, loving and learning on a piece of land. Anyone willing to dance with such a dream should be able to assess its assets and liabilities; its fantasies and realities. "Is it really possible for me?" is the burning question this book addresses.

Genres: Nonfiction, Agriculture, Business, Food, Gardening, Reference, Health

463 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 1998

About the author

Joel F. Salatin is an American farmer, lecturer, and author.
Salatin raises livestock on his Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. Meat from the farm is sold by direct marketing to consumers and restaurants.

Reviews

[Jenni Pertuset · Rating 2 out of 5]

The value of this book for me lies not in Joel Salatin's prose, which is painful to read, but in a simple question he asks. From my open book post about Wendell Berry's Unsettling of America:

If we can’t return ourselves and our nation to our agrarian roots, what can we do to heal the cultural wounds he describes – wounds that are as much ecological, communal, and personal as they are agricultural? As I read The Unsettling of America, my own answer came in the form of a question: “What are you doing now?”

The question originated in my reading of Joel Salatin’s You Can Farm. Salatin writes that he is often asked for advice on how to get started farming, and he always responds, “What are you doing now?” He suggests that regardless of your location or other limitations, there are many ways to make farming part of your life.

Though, like the question, this answer relates to farming, for me its scope is much broader. “What are you doing now?” is a prompt to identify what I can do in this moment, in this place - to sustain myself, my family, my community, and my world.

This is a profound shift in focus for me, because for my entire adult life I have been looking forward to a future in which I will be doing useful and meaningful work. Only upon becoming a mother did I feel the value of the work I was already doing. As I ponder my growing desire for work in addition to mothering a toddler, I am still looking to the future and what I might become with more education or more time or more something, but I am also able to envision what I can do with what I already have.

[Chak · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is is simply no excuse for any type of agriculture that degrades the environment. I am not a believer in "trade-off" mentality. I do not believe for an instant that in order to produce enough food we need to sacrifice environmental quality. Included in this goal is smell.

Any food production system that stinks up the neighborhood -- regardless of how rural -- is unacceptable. Excusing farm smells with that euphemistic "fresh country air" business is ridiculous. If you ever smell manure, you're smelling mismanagement.

- You Can Farm, Joel Salatin, p27

Joel Salatin is a successful farmer. He has a profitable, stable, multigenerational business. He and his family enjoy working at it, and have a solid base of satisfied customers. He is constantly innovating, both on the production side, and on the marketing side. He is independent from the industrial side of agriculture, yet has mutually beneficial interdependence within his community. He tries, in You Can Farm to tell other people how to do it, too. He says very clearly in the book that he does not take an environmental perspective - he is interested in the best way to profit, yet his approach is undeniably as environmentally-protective (and proactive) as can be. This was the key to the entire book for me - farmers will absolutely make more money and achieve profitable independence, from good, animal-based, land-stewardship and nutrient cycling which will absolutely help the land and improve human and animal health, than they will from industrial "agribusiness" models, which will limit their productivity, their profits, and their happiness. Salatin steadfastly insists, explains and provides many examples as to why farmers should not accept the profit-eliminating, environment-damaging, and nutrition-limiting opinions of the USDA, Universities, and businesses that make money from selling their suggestions to the farmers they are said to be "helping."

That is the book in a nutshell, but there is a lot of common-sense (but apparently not well-known) advice sprinkled everywhere.

If you have no land, you can purchase grow lights, get rid of the TV, and turn the family room into a multi-tiered garden, even if it only produces fresh salad greens for your table.... I would encourage you NOT to buy land. Land ownership is NOT the place to start; often it is the worst place to start.

- p45

In many ways, I loved this book. I couldn't put it down, and I would talk about it with anyone who would listen (or at least didn't walk away too quickly). It is inspirational and will save many new and wannabe farmers a lot of time, trouble, and money if they follow the advice therein. However, I gave it three stars because there were so many times Salatin mentions "research" and doesn't footnote it or provide official sources. Also, I assume the book was mainly written for people who already seem to know a lot about farms, because there were many times I needed an explanation, such as for "extension agents." Salatin sure hates them, but it took me a while and some googling to understand what they are. (Admittedly, I am ignorant, but he does say in the introduction "While this book can be helpful to all farmers, it targets the wannabes...").

The reason this brought the book down a star or two for me were two-fold: 1. I agreed with pretty much ALL of Salatin's thoughts on food and food production and really wanted to reference what he was referencing, and 2. I wanted You Can Farm to change the minds of people who practiced / consumed industrialized agriculture. And, the word "research" is thrown around so blindly that without properly sourced, investigated, truly neutral "research," it just seems like a way to justify a bias, especially to people on the other side of the fence. There were so many instances of "research" being cited with no reference to where it came from, that the very few times a source (however incomplete) was mentioned, it very much stood out to me - for example, right near the end of the book when Salatin explains WHY he keeps referring to industrial chicken as being in "fecal soup," he mentioned that Time Magazine reported on it in 1994 (pg. 441). I know, it's hardly a real reference (writers who use research to make points would mention that Time Magazine cited XYZ study by ABC, and then have a footnote/endnote with full information).

However, if you are going to farm as a full-time family occupation, this is a very useful book to read. However, you should know that there isn't a whole lot of information about vegetable/plant farming. Polyface is mostly an animal farm. Personally, I didn't mind that at all, because my main purpose in reading the book was to start to learn more about farming in general, and to learn more about how to improve soil and land stewardship. Salatin covers that well. I also like that he presents very strong opinions on how you might want to live your life if you're going to make money farming (being extremely thrifty, being unwaveringly dedicated, scheduling your time and vacations), and it was very helpful to have him be so dissuasive in the beginning. I think that is the most valuable part of this book -- to be convinced full-time farming for income is NOT for you if it truly is not for you -- it can save you from making a very expensive, time consuming, and devastating mistake.

Usually the amount we can spend will equal our experience level. In other words, if we need to borrow money to do it, we probably do not have enough experience to make it a risk worth taking. We call this principle "overrunning our headlights."

- p211

Lest you miss the point of this discussion, let me make it very plain: you probably do not need a barn. And if you do, it probably should not look like anything your local barn builder has in mind. And if you have the terrible misfortune of acquiring a pice of land with a bank barn on it, you probably should tear it down as soon as possible to build something more animal-friendly.

- p283

One more thing you should know before embarking on this book is that Salatin's strong opinions can be a double-edged sword for the reader. His opinions can be very helpful and educational, but some of them like his disdain for "city people," some of his politics, or his opinions on how useless sports like little league is for children for example, can be off-putting.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first heard mention of Joel Salatin and his Polyface Farm in an interview with Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, and I was fascinated from the start. Central to Polyface Farm was a carefully controlled rotation of animals grazing on the land, with chickens following cows to break up their manure and eat the grubs laid in it, reducing fly problems and providing food for the chickens. You Can Farm gives not only an overview of Salatin's farming methods for raising high-quality poultry, eggs, beef, and pork but also gives plenty of practical advice for running a successful farm business.

Although the book talks a good deal about the philosophy and practice of Salatin's agricultural model, most of the nitty-gritty details are left for his other books, Pasture Poultry Profits and Salad Bar Beef. Still, there's enough to understand the principles involved, and there are many more general ideas as well. More important is a good deal of advice and the wisdom of experience. Salatin is encouraging about the prospects for making a living raising the best-tasting, healthiest foods anywhere. At the same time, he's realistic about the hard work, persistence, and creativity needed to succeed. Rather than being a purely rah-rah book, Salatin would rather scare off potential farmers than have them get themselves into something they don't really want and consequently will fail at anyway. Still, it's a very positive book: you can farm, Salatin insists, despite the difficulties and the failures evident in conventional agriculture.

Not only does Salatin lay out solid principles for a model of organic agriculture that produces excellent food, is sustainable, and improves soil fertility, but he also discusses important aspects of making an agricultural business plan, one that's customized to your particular situation and interests. It's an excellent book, and I'm very much looking forward to reading Salatin's other books.

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I credit this book with getting me into farming. Joel's an entertaining writer, but for those who don't have time to read it, here's what I got from it in a nutshell:

If you're dreaming of farming "someday" when you can afford to buy land, quit your day job, etc., stop doing that. Stay right where you are, rent some land somewhere nearby, and farm that plot of land. If you do it profitably, you can expand. Pretty soon, you're managing several acres while still not living on a farm. You'll be earning a living from your farming, making a profit that you can save. Once you've saved enough, buy land. Don't think of it as "saving up for land" so much as investing your money in a secure vehicle that gives a better return over a savings account. Salatin emphasizes that buying real estate is a "wealth preservation strategy," not a "wealth acquisition strategy."

This idea isn't without its flaws. It's clearly geared toward the suburban or rural dweller who has farmland for rent close to home. (Hardly surprising from the man who was quoted as saying, "What do we need a New York City for? What good is it?") I have found ways to apply it to an urban setting, though, something along the lines of SPIN farming. The biggest obstacle with that is urban zoning codes that prohibit agriculture, especially animals. It's just not feasible to rent farmland 30 miles away for raising animals that need tended a couple times a day.

But if you can rent big empty plots around you--vacant lots, corporate lawns, etc.--thus relieving the owner of mowing it, you can get easy access to enough land to start growing for farmers markets or a CSA. Eventually, by the time you have enough money to buy your own land, you'll already be an experienced farmer with a customer base eager to buy what you grow.

[Miles · Rating 2 out of 5]

Though I'm sure some of the information in this book is dated now that it's 15 years old, it seems like a very handy guide to starting a financially viable and environmentally responsible farm. Salatin gives a lot of excellent advice, and he certainly knows his business. He demonstrates a profound respect for the earth as he sees it, and I applaud him for espousing such a positive, "can do" message. I am about to begin my own small farming enterprise, and I'm sure that plenty of Salatin's rules of thumb will be useful for me as I begin learning the ropes and moving toward something that works for me.

I'm giving this book two stars because, even though I believe Salatin's heart is in the right place, this book ultimately infuriated me. As a supplement to his advice about farming (which seems basically sound, at least to an amateur like me), Salatin insists on throwing his personal politics into the mix. I'm not necessarily bothered when an author does this, but I find nearly all of Salatin's non-farming opinions to be either ill-informed or downright offensive. For someone equipped with an apparently discerning mind, Salatin seems to have done very little serious investigation into matters beyond his own strikingly simplistic worldview. Though it seems to come from a genuinely good place, Salatin's religion is about as naive as one can imagine; I laughed out loud during his discussion of why it isn't a problem to kill animals for food: "Humans are not animals and animals are not humans. Only humans are created in the image of God. Neither did He make of animals a 'living soul'" (342). I'm neither a vegetarian nor one who gets particularly bristly about animal rights, but the lack of sophistication here about an issue that is central to many farmers' lives is staggering. Additionally, Salatin repeatedly plugs the "virtues" of free market capitalism, even claiming that turning our entire health care system over to private companies would solve the health crisis. Coupled with unequivocal endorsements of almost every spurious, new age, anti-scientific crap you can think of, this book became quite tiresome. I'm sure that Salatin has it right when it comes to promoting certain alternatives to the factory farming model and other destructive farming methods, but it became more and more difficult to trust him as he continued to reveal just how uninformed he was about many important issues.

Salatin clearly feels that his politics and his farm are two inseparable entities, and I honestly can't fault him for that. I appreciate a man who lives his convictions. My numerous disagreements with the worldview offered by this book, however, tainted what could have been an excellent overall read.

[T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book. Great advice; in fact, a lot of it is probably not what you were expecting to hear. One of the most interesting pieces of advice, which he repeats a number of time in the book, is that if you want to start farming, don't start by farming. Start by getting your kitchen certified so you can make and sell baked / cooked goods at the local farmers markets. Once you've built some customers and established yourself in the market, *then* begin vertically integrating by starting to farm some of the ingredients you use in your farmers market goodies.

There's lots of great advice for farmers of all experience levels, aspiring to seasoned, and it was an incredibly interesting and useful book that will help you reduce overhead costs, work in concert with the land and climate, and get you thinking about the farm as a business.

As a side note: If you've listened to Salatin speak, you know that he's extremely religious and extremely libertarian / free market. With the exception of a single chapter in the very beginning of the book where he lays out his personal ideologies, the majority of the book is mostly void of this type ideology or speech. So if you're worried that you might not be able to tolerate a book written by this guy because of your own religious / political ideologies, I'd say you actually don't need to worry about that at all. There's a little bit of kooky stuff in the main part of the book (e.g. he seems to think that acupuncture might work on livestock) but it's mostly rock-solid advice.

[joel melton · Rating 4 out of 5]

informative and encouraging, yet not at the cost of reality. salatin does a good job of bringing optimistic entrepreneurial gusto with reality-checking truth.

his writing style is as iconic as his speaking style. so if you don't like his lectures you probably will struggle to appreciate this book.

overall i'm grateful for the work salatin is doing in bringing education even decades ago which is still the antidote for many of our issues today. i believe that is the strongest testament to this work.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The crazy sustainable pastured beef and poultry farmer featured in Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma has some books of his own. This is one of them. It's chock full of advice and ideas for actually turning a profit in agriculture, long considered a fiscal black hole ("if I had a million dollars I'd farm until it was all gone"). He's been doing it, and he's seen others do it, and he's seen a lot of folks go broke following the conventional wisdom and the best advice of the USDA and University Extension programs. Salatin is an interesting character, and I don't know that I quite agree with all his politics but he has considered them carefully and he has a lot of good information. Even if you don't want to farm, it's a good way to learn more about it, which is a wise thing to do since that's where all our food comes from. Don't expect an analogous book from Archer Daniels Midland ("You can control grain supplies and make unnatural sweeteners and other food additives")

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whew, thank goodness I found this book before I bought a farm. I stayed on my grandparent's farm during the summers of my youth. Those were some of the happiest times of my life, along with family vacations and days on the lake in Dad's boat. It was easy for me to romanticize the idea of having a farm. I greatly appreciate Joel's methods - we need more farmers like him. But alas, I am not one of them. This realization dawned on me after reading about the difference between a backyard vineyard and a 1 acre vineyard. Backyard vineyard = picking and crushing grapes with children in a day worthy of the pages of Martha Stewart magazine. One-acre vineyard = hired help, constant mowing, lots of time and professional equipment. I think I'll stick with backyard-everything.

[Simon Stegall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely valuable book.

Even if you have no interest in farming for yourself, you ought to read this book just to get a sense of how food- its production, marketing, and consumption- actually works in this world, and more importantly, how it COULD work in a better world.

[Steph B · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a wonderful, PRACTICAL, and sweet book! I almost didn’t give it a read, but I’m glad I did! It was great!

[Ben Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes, I go through slack seasons where I do not want to work on my animals or grow to accommodate more animals. This book has motivated me to get going not for my own sake but for my children’s.

Amazing book by Salatin. If you are thinking about farming full time then this is the book you want to read. 432 pages but it felt so short. He covers all the topics you need to get up and going. Great book that I will definitely be referencing in the future.

[Granger Stimpson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A practical guide to a future I want to live. Would recommend!

[Jason Sixsmith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whether you’re interested in farming or not there’s no small amount of insight from this book that spill over to many areas of life, making it an excellent read for anyone who wants more from life than being a fungible widget in our corporate driven economy.
For example:
I’ve not heard many healthy perspectives articulated on the matter of environmentalism until coming across this book. Modern environmentalism tries to solve our industrial strip-mining of nature by way of a zero sum game but Joel, working off a lifetime of experience, explains and provides numerous examples of how humans can harvest a rich yield from ecosystems that’s mutually beneficial to the environment. This folds into his wisdom as an economist that turns conventional wisdom on its head - showing the reader, on a deep level and with much mirth, that wealth is not measured by possessions or even modern relationships based on consumerism but rather the hard and sacrificial labor that contributes to the development of a productive community.
And one of the most important lessons is that you don’t wait for ideal conditions… you start with what you have and where you are, even if it’s next to nothing. Everyone needs to go through an apprenticeship phase before their passion becomes profitable. So if all you have is a shed, garage, or small backyard in the city, you can start building your ambitions there.
Remember this, HOA regulations and city ordinances are just suggestions. If you develop good relationships with your neighbors they’re not going to blow the whistle on you. 😉

[Connor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joel salatin is the goat. I listened to this and he narrated the book as well which I really enjoyed, he’s got a good boomer vibe to him. Despite some of this boomerness, I think he still conveys a lot of really good information and inspiring takeaways.

So many times throughout this I learned about things that the farm I work on has already implemented or would be really beneficial to implement. It’s a great contextualizer and motivator.

Let’s go Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farming

[Juan Miguel Delgado S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed so much. Inspires me to be better in what I do.

[Brian Corbin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good book about the “how to” of farming. Only thing keeping this from 5 stars is there’s a little too much waxing about life but the book is certainly worth the read.

[Tim Segraves · Rating 5 out of 5]

On page 88 - need to renew

[Shannon Armendariz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is not a "how-to" farm, but more a book to encourage you to develop YOUR farm. Every farmer and farm is different, as well as every community and market. This book is a guide and confidence booster to develop your individual farm to your area's and individual community's needs and wants.

Some politics and religion are brought up, but as anyone who pays attention knows, politics and religion pay a huge part in everything we do. Regulations, permits, etc all have to do with government and politics and they greatly affect farms, livestock, food, and the free market. If Joel Salatin left this out of the book, it would be a great disservice to the reader and future (or current) farmer. As for the small religious tidbits, he's not trying to convert you. The way the general population lives their everyday lives through morality and values is through their religion or spiritual beliefs. To discount this is both irresponsible and reprehensible because those you will be working with and selling to, have deeply held beliefs. Joel Salatin was very correct in putting the religious aspects into his book. Even if what he believes is not what you believe, this book will guide you into finding your own path, with your own community, with your own farm, and even within yourself.

[Terri-lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this one on audiobook. This author says it like it is, and reads the book himself without trying to be perfect. I like that. Makes him much more relatable. I loved that he laughed in some parts as he read. I think this is a great starter book on this topic and that anyone with dreams to be a farmer of whatever kind will benefit from this book. It only lost one star because I found some chapters to be overwhelming, yet others that left me needing more info. But since the book covers so much scope I think it was done very well. Once you've read this one you'll definitely want to start diving into more specific books on the topics you need more info for (which the author has several of). If nothing else, you'll walk away knowing what it takes to farm, and if you have what It takes. You'll know if the life and business of farming is for you or if it isn't. Thats valuable to walk away with. I'm glad I read this book, it gave me plenty to think about, and planted a seed of passion I will continue to water with more books on the topic

[Alexi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone, including me, will have something they don’t agree with in this one. But if you leave the nitpicking and see the vision in the book, it is breathtaking. My takeaway was hope and empowerment. There are people in America responsibly working towards leaving the earth actually better because it was used for agriculture, including livestock. I have read Michael Pollen’s account of Polyface farm and I think it was a good prerequisite to go in knowing one of the leading public voices in food today believes this to be one of the most sustainable farms in America (otherwise I might have spent half the book questioning if the farm was as good as the owner thought). It encouraged me to continue trying to grown my own food and inspired me to commit more to supporting local environment-improvers

[Brian Schuster · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is packed with agricultural information for small start-ups, so it was right up my alley as a young man who wants to cooperatively help farmers offer top-notch value to restaurants and busy professionals without stepping on regulatory landmines or falling into pits of despair created by the ups and downs of earning a living from the land and local commerce.

Two passages I'll share in this review stood out to me as excellent examples of how to overcome major hurdles faced by early-stage companies and family farms.

Joel Salatin shares his rich stories of personal experience on a sustainable farm in Swoope, Virginia, which now distributes alt-organic poultry, eggs, salad bar beef, and pigaerator pork across the East Coast and beyond. He offers apprenticeships to aspiring farmers and has set up creative compensation arrangements to give hard-working people an opportunity to grow rapidly with minimal capital investment. In the book, Salatin speculates about how a community would look if everyone pitched in support farmers who use healthier growing practices and benevolent animal husbandry.

Salatin got an early start in the farm business as a boy selling eggs at the curb market in Staunton and grew from there with a clear passion for farming, but he also spent a few years as an investigative journalist. If he's anything like me, he realized that good investigative journalism is surprisingly dangerous work, which led him back to the pioneering principles of self-sufficiency.

His father was an inspiration, giving Salatin junior the freedom to run his own business at a young age and giving him the tools and resources to do it effectively. Following his time in the Navy, Salatin's father bought a 1,000-acre highland farm in the Venezuelan jungle after working for Texaco’s offshore oil drilling venture in South America. The family had great initial success selling poultry at the open-air city market, but political instability quickly took its toll. Their farm was taken over by rogues, and the police wouldn't protect them without bribes, so they came back to America, where they launched a variety of profitable pesticide-free farming enterprises (or 'fiefdoms') in the Shenandoah Valley.

Polyface Farm utilizes animals' natural behaviors to improve the quality of soil and ecosystem, which keeps animal standards of living high through good sanitation, virtually undetectable manure odor, and low feed costs in contrast to industrial farmers relying on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

Chickens and turkeys are great at reducing pestilent insect populations that fester around livestock manure, and the bugs also serve as a zero-cost forage feed, offering a two-for-one deal in place of toxic synthetic pesticides. The birds can also be sent through garden beds and vegetable crops that have grown high enough to avoid being pillaged by the birds' strong clawing motions as they search the soil for food.

Pigs stir up compost to find edible foods, which means the hogs need less feed and the compost needs less manual labor to stir it up. I've also heard that hogs are good at clearing brush in forests and gleaning the fields to finish off the left-over foods missed during harvest. Cows can graze on a grass cover crop that's grown between planting years to replenish nutrients in the soil, but it's important to move the cows to new areas regularly using lightweight fencing, usually electric fence with plastic posts that one person can easily move alone. Grazed pasture is great bedding for mobile chicken coops and shelters.

In addition to offering important livestock wisdom, the book has these two passages tucked in that stood out to me as particularly important as I read "Chapter 21: Self-Employment."
* People like Daniel Boone minimize risk not by buying expensive insurance policies, but rather by learning as much as they can in the subject areas that matter to their success. Eating healthy and strengthening friendships on a consistent basis are two ways to drastically reduce the risk of huge medical expenses. [pg 222]
* At Salatin's home church, the local fellowship schedules workdays at each other's homesteads. They've built barns, cut firewood, cleaned cisterns, and demolished buildings together. Without an institutional church building, they are freer to help each other rather than devoting time and money to building maintenance. In Salatin's experience, it's much better than conventional insurance. [pg 225-226]. "Insurement" might be one way to market such an opportunity, and the concept reminds me of Niti Bali’s community-building food church as well.

Salatin makes it clear through his own success that if you can find the proper energy sources for yourself and avoid distractions, a lot can be done with a relatively small crew along with lifelong learning driven by curiosity and persevering determination to overcome multiple failures. Coupled with in-the-field YouTube farming videos, I too believe "We Can Farm."

My name is Brian G. Schuster. I'm classified by Mark Cuban as a "wantrepreneur" and I hope my review was helpful to you! You can view my editorial work and peak into my ecologically-driven, Stanford-trained imagination at bgschust.substack.com.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this book in year three of our farm journey. Had already learned most of his common sense suggestions, and thought it got a little preachy. Overall, good to know we are on the right path though.

[Gavin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very useful, down-to-earth advice about farming and managing a home business. In particular, this notion of his is perfect for every endeavor: If you want to farm and you aren't farming right now, what are you doing? Don't wait for something like owning land, and indeed question the necessity of owning land. He may be a bit optimistic on revenue, or maybe what works for you will be different. But if you are thinking of a life change toward nature and sustainable food, this book offers a wealth of solid advice.

The book is also a promotion of Polyface Farm, but it's the best kind of marketing: promotion in toe with useful/enjoyable information. Moreover, more small farms out there would probably also be a net win for all small farmers because customers would be more familiar with buying from small farms and regulators would have to see small farms as a stakeholder, hopefully leading to fewer hostile regulations.

Here and there, we snowballed from apples with spots to government conspiracies, but he has a reasonable mistrust of the government as a farmer. He and fellow author farmers, such as John Klar, have found it a necessity to either avoid or legally challenge government regulations that would put them out of business. As Elinor Ostrom showed in Governing the Commons, government intervention can only strengthen the local governance over their common resources, such as soil, ecosystems, farmland, water, etc., when the government supports the local law of the land. Otherwise, she concluded, government regulation is counterproductive.

There are a very few points where I cannot find any common grounds with Joel Salatin. There are a few, but not worth mentioning. In fact, he may yet convince me that charging high prices is the best thing. I can see how it conforms to the viewpoint of a free market economics fan, but I remain unconvinced that money can ever do anyone any good. If you can feed yourself and share gifts of this and that with your community, or barter as you like, that's good enough, I think. I realize this would mean an end to smartphones and audiobooks. I realize a shift too quickly away from money would be a human catastrophe. I think people with money are like plants on fert. Going cold turkey can be counterproductive, and the turnover to a better, more wholistic and satisfying system should be done gradually with care. I think local communities can provide that care because that is the traditional role of the community.

But back to Mr. Salatin's book. There are a few intersections with my own life here, such as my brother having moved to Venezuela. He is a permaculturalist farmer there now who also brings food and community to his village. There is our dad who homesteaded like his. And I think this is a hidden gem from the book: Even if you start late, you leave an impression on your children.

I personally want to take this beyond farming to hunting and gathering. If you like grass-fed cows, consider truly free-range deer. Consider too the traditional role humans have played in our ecosystems in almost all of human history, including in present day, as hunters, fishers, farmers, and foragers. Food forests are my interest.

[Jonathan Brooker · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I first sat down with this book, after having checked it out of our local library, I read through the Table of Contents to get an idea of what all I could expect to find the book covering. With the book being over 400 pages and each chapter on average probably about only 8-10 pages long, this table was full and my first observation was that it was filled with such a wide spread of incredibly helpful topics. I couldn't wait to dive in!

A few months back a friend turned me on to Joel Salatin and his unique farming approach, which had me looking all over to get my hands on the variety of materials available to learn and explore more of his insights and teachings. Being toted by others as "the Bible for homestead farming," of course this book had to be on my shortlist of things to dig into, and it did not disappoint.

That said, it is a book that was released in 1998, so right off the bat it's worth noting that some of the material has aged out of applicability. The thing is, it's hard to know what all might be included in that now obsolete material, particularly if you're truly new to the whole gig of the farming enterprise. (My guess would be that it's a very very small percentage of the material covered.)

Now every piece of communication always presumes the audience has both a general understanding of language as well as a certain level of comprehension regarding the topics as they come up. The expectation is that the communication then builds on this understanding to expand it. My one critique of this book is that I feel like it presumed a little too much comprehension of a variety of farming topics right off the bat, rather than assuming that the novice might truly be new to the world that the author was literally raised and surrounded in all of his life. It wasn't egregious, but there just were a number of times when he went on to develop a thought and I was left thinking, "I'm not sure I even understand your starting point or some of the terms you're using without explanation." I think it would've been helpful to have perhaps offered additional beginners resources whenever this happened and/or a glossary of sorts.

But besides that I was able to take down a lot of notes from the insights offered in this book. The author's writing style is succinct and informative, humble and helpful. It's a dense book, and I imagine that any reader - unique as each one would be - would find certain bits of it to be a lull and other bits riveting, based off their unique passions and interests that are pulling them towards farming. So I'm grateful for this book and will probably have to check it out of the library again a couple times in the future as a resource book for the wild journey of homesteading.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was written for the average individual who’s thinking about making the leap to growing, farming, and raising animals, or just turning your passion for these things into a marketable business. He even discusses possible paths to grow this to the point of making a full-time living from your farming activities, although there are an untold number of ways to make that happen and everyone’s journey is different. It was written 26 years ago and is still applicable today as much as it ever has been, and the author is now much more well known.

I’d put myself safely in the ‘backyard gardener’ category, and there’s no hope of raising animals due to HOA restrictions so that keeps my gardening simple: fruit, veggies and herbs. The author emphasizes starting where you are with what you have, getting experience, being creative, engaging with your community and your neighbors, learning from your failures, and then allowing your enterprise to evolve and change over time. He’s been farming since he was 10 so his knowledge base is profoundly extensive. He discusses the principles and possibilities here, leaving the nitty gritty details for other books.

This was a very informative audio book, but there’s just too much information to take it all in. It would have been a better resource as a physical book to be referenced, highlighted, and notated for years to come. If my journey ever evolves beyond the backyard, this will be the first book I add to the shelf.

[TurksMaster · Rating 2 out of 5]

It takes a lot of effort to excavate value from this book.
The prose is painful to endure. The author sorely needed an editor. This book could have been cut in half and still been too long.
It's preachy and judgmental. Between wishing for the 'good old days' and libertarian 'government is the problem' diatribes, the message gets very distracted and pedantic. There is a strange mix of Ayn Rand, Rand Paul and Mother Earth News.

There are however, useful elements buried beneath myopic philosophy. Some of them are anecdotal, some practical, and some in very clear lists. None more important that impressing that nobody should do this without making sure you and your family has a shared vision of what you want.

As someone that grew up on a farm and has lived in cities most of the time since, I have an appreciation for the difficulty of farming and allure of the lifestyle. It is not for everyone and the picture of farming (to the authors credit) can be painted many ways. His advice to start NOW and be careful can be applied to many parts of life and should so be applied here.

There are contradictions and head shaking passages, so enter with eyes open and expectations adjusted.

[Christy Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I toured Salatin's amazing farm in 2011, when my husband was working for a few months in DC. Ironically, Joel was speaking at our community college back home at the time, and his son was leading the tour. We had a good laugh about that.

So many thoughts about this, it's hard to start.

Salatin definitely has strong opinions, but thy are sound and based on experience and logic.

If you like pets of any kind, you just have to smile when he talks about the financial mistake of any kind of pet and think to each his own.

He inspires the reader to think and start acting like an entrepreneur.

He educates the reader to the madness of modern farming and the chemicals they think they need to use.

He comments on the modern health crisis and genuine reasons for it.

Even though this book is almost 25 years old, I don't think it's dated. How people spend their time has gotten worse, as people chose to have their time sucked away in gaming and devices.

It needs to be more commonly known that he who controls the food controls the people. More people need to take food production into their own hands.

[Blaise Sceski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall good read; quick and easy on the eyes. Lots of unverified research claims to take with a grain of salt but the anecdotal evidence from the Author’s experience provides a decent blueprint. Indeed a lot of the advice is similar to other general entrepreneurial advice (value added, importance of marketing, etc). One other note is that the first edition from 1998 has a lot of the pricing/wage info which is very outdated. Then again, a gallon of milk can still be got for $2.50 in some places…

One other critique would be how the Author defines what “a successful farm” looks like. He and his family live a very “lean” lifestyle. The upside side is they seem to have a lot of free time in off seasons. If your idea of success looks similar, a lot of the book’s advice maybe relevant to you. If you’re coming from a more “extravagant” lifestyle this book may serve as a reality check that full time farming may not offer that “level” of success.

[Isaac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written by the godfather of permaculture livestock, this book is aimed at aspiring “quit my job and start farming” types –those who have grown weary of their “town jobs” and want to move on to a simpler life as a farmer. Joel takes you under his wing, teaches you the basics, and throws cold water in your face about the reality of what it will take. I really haven’t encountered a better guidebook for the wannabe farmer. This one has it all: animal basics, permaculture systems, marketing strategies, husbandry guidelines, even a bit about oration! Yes, this book is now 23 years old. It does show its age in places, especially where dollar sums are given. But I would say 90-95% of the book is still fully applicable today. Joel was really ahead of his time when he wrote this book, because now --a quarter century later-- he is contemporary! 10/10